Dear Jane - I am free
31 Jan 2021Dwengo
Loki inspected himself in his mirror. He hated wearing his officers suit, but sometimes it was required for the political side of his job. There had been an unusually high amount of pressure from above to make sure that his current prisoner was not killed or seriously injured. It had all come a little too late of course. Not that he died, but some appendages had been removed. Loki frowned, now his prisoner is like a hot potato, no one seems to want anything to do with him.
Delegates from the Imperial Empire were to meet with officials from the Federation for the formal exchange of prisoners later today. This prisoner swap was months in the making and involved many hours of negotiations between both super powers. One of the stipulations is that the prisoners come back alive and "not significantly damaged". Of course, while those good for nothing politicians were busy wrangling a deal. No one thought to inform Loki. He clenched his jaw. the formal agreement had come to late for the agreement to be held up in good faith.
However, with several million credits and the Federations most skilled bio-mechanical surgeons, they were able to artificially reconstruct most of the missing pieces of prisoner 4AB62. His ears were artificially reconstructed, neuro implants mimicked the behaviour of the ear drum, sending signals down the nervous system to the brain.
His eyes.... Loki sighed. Iron got a little carried away, sliced off his eye lids and then used a corkscrew to pop both eyes until the pulp ran down the prisoner's face. His eyes couldn't' be rebuilt in a lifelike manner, too much damage had been done. Now the prisoner looked like he had a pair of goggle on. His vision was probably better then before.
We also cut off his nose and lips. He looked like a surprised zombie. Loki chuckled to himself. The surgeons couldn't recreate his nose effectively, they said they couldn't maintain moisture levels for the exposed soft tissue... Or something. So they surgically installed a mechanical mask to cover the his nose and mouth. Safe to say he will be feeding through a straw for the rest of his life.
The list is long and quite brutal, in a final act of pain he was dipped in sulphuric acid. The doctors were not happy about that. Apparently it meant most of his body couldn't be "Artificially cleaned up". I got chewed out while Iron just stood there with his blank stare like his brain had crashed or something.
Needless to say, after today, the pain in my ass that is prisoner 4AB62 will no longer be my problem. Loki made his way to the delegation.
"Iron, go wake our friend up." he grabbed his arm "Do not hurt him, he has just been put back together".
"Ok" Iron grunted before turning to fetch the prisoner.
I woke up sweating. The room strangely clear even though it was night time. My eyes seem to have adjusted very well to the dark environment around me. My brain was foggy, I couldn't quite remember why I was in this cabin. So tired, if I could just get some more sleep. I turned my head on the pillow. An extreme level of vertigo overcame me. I had to cling to the sheets, a lame attempt to stop the room from spinning. Bits and pieces from the last year slowly began to come back to me. My breathing intensified as the terror of those events over came my senses, In a wild panic I reached up to my face, remembering the torture and torment. My hands touched some sort of mechanical mask that covered my face from nose to chin.
"The surgery... " I said out loud. My voice came out deep and synthetic. I froze, picking up what sounded like footsteps, they sounded very far away, as if the sound was amplified in my head. I heard voices too.
"I'm here for a prisoner" said a familiar voice. Was that Iron? My torturer
"Yeah... No shit, this is a prison block" chuckled another voice.
"Prisoner 4AB62" Iron replied in his monotone voice, no emotional response to the obvious insult. There was some tapping on a keyboard.
"Yeah, he's on level 3 door 26" The man replied.
The footsteps came closer and closer, the amplified distortion becoming less and less. The door beeped, hissed and slid open. A silence befell the room. he bore into me with his emotionless eyes. His face no indication of how he felt, or what he was up to. I took short sharp breaths waiting for something to happen.
"Come" he said, stepping aside to let me through. "You are being handed back."
"I'm..." The strange sound of my synthetic voice made me hesitate, thinking someone else was speaking at the same time as me. "I'm, going back? To the empire?" I asked.
"Yes" Iron replied as he turned his whole body to face me.
Excited, I jolted out of bed.
It felt like a ploy, it was too good to be true. There must have a been a catch. I froze unable to move. I just stood there staring at Iron. He stared back at me. No emotion. Never any emotion
The senators paced up and down. "We've been waiting for hours! this is an Outrage!" One said, his long senators robes flapping wildly behind him.
"Patience." Said the senior member of the delegation.
"This will be the fastest prisoner swap deal done in decades. What's a few more hours?" he asked with a relaxed smile on his face.
The three senators formed part of a team of negotiators that had been working on a prisoner swap for many months. This was a culmination of all their hard work. They sat -or stood- on one side of a long meeting table, waiting for the Federation to formally begin proceedings.
Ten more minutes passed before the door finally hissed open and several men dressed in military uniform entered the room
"Gentlemen" the most senior member of the Federal delegation said as he took a seat. His voice rough with years of military experience. "Lets get on with the show." Another member of his delegation pulled out a datapad. "You have a" The general looked down at the datapad "Mr. Rio Dawn?"
"We do" smiled the lead senator, he waved an arm at a slave by the door, who shuffled out to fetch Rio.
Rio shuffled in nervously.
"and you have?" Asked the senator with a raised eyebrow.
The general sighed "He gave many names, but we settled on DW". The senator gave a tight smile. "Bring him in" The general said, as he nodded to a junior officer who left the room to fetch DW.
I was waiting around in a well light, spacious hallway. I nervously looked around. Iron stood behind me always staring. Did he ever blink?
A man dressed in Federal Army Officer uniform came out of a room and nodded to Iron. Iron shoved me hard in the back, causing my head to whip back. I stumbled, dizziness clawing at my consciousness.
"get up" Iron grunted, grabbing me by the scruff of the neck and hauling me onto my feet with one arm, no sign of exertion from him.
"Move" he said. pushing me hard again. I balanced my self as I walked into the room looking half drunk.
Imperial senators
I kept my head bowed, this could be some elaborate ruse. Loki had done it before when he had me "rescued" by Imperial Special Forces. as soon as I got into the air lock I was exposed to partial vacuum. My blood boiled, ear drums burst and I was pissing blood and other dead cells from the exposure for weeks after.
"What... What the hell have you done to him!?" The standing senator said, gesturing toward me with an out flung arm.
"you've disfigured him! You've made him blind"
"Hey now" The general said raising his arms and his shoulders defensively. "He was badly damaged in the battle, he obtained serious burns all over his body"
This was defiantly a trick to see how quickly I'll spill the beans on the inquisitors
"I'm fine" I said. Or shouted. My synthetic voice startling even the Federalists. Maybe this wasn't a game. I'll keep quiet.
"You see?" The general said.
"Duvals bloody diamonds!" a senator shouted "He's not fine, his voice is digitally interpreted! and what is this oxygen rebreather he's wearing"
"His lungs and his voice box were damaged in the fire. It was touch and go, we did the best we could"
"And his eyes? Is he blind as a Brain tree?".
"They too, were sadly damaged beyond repair." The general bowed his head. "We have grafted photosynthetic digital analysers onto his optic nerves instead. If anything. His eyes are better!" The general said, a little too cheerfully.
"There will be repercussions for this. You mark my words general". The lead diplomat snapped as he rose from his chair. "Come" he gestured to me "let us take our leave".
I looked up, first at the senator and then at Iron - who was still staring at me-. I was unsure what to do, if this was a game, then my next move could make things excruciatingly painful. I looked around the room trying to gauge people's reactions. The Federalists were staring at their own prisoner and the Imperials were talking in hushed tones. Furious at my apparent condition.
"Come now boy. You are free". The Senator moved closer to me and I flinched. "Sweet Aisling, what have they done to you?"
Aboard the courier Peace is Optional but Death is not. Imperial doctors and scientists prodded and probed me, mumbling to each other and calling readouts.
"This work is remarkable. Tell me can you hear this?" He placed a device in front of me, it made a strange high pitched sound.
"Yes"
"That is 250khz!" he smiled cheerfully. "Humans can only hear up to a frequency of about 20khz. Your hearing is remarkable".
"Uh.... Thanks?"
"Ok ok, turn out the lights." The room went pitch black. Someone stumbled over a tray in a corner of the cabin. My eyes adjusted almost immediately, I was able to see everyone clearly. Filling in absolute darkness with a greenish hue.
"Can you see how many finger I'm holding up?"
"Three"
The doctor was shocked. "Your eyesight... It is enhanced. You see better then a.... A Jaguar! An Owl even!"
"Alright alright" The senior senator walked into the cabin, flicking on the light. "That's enough, leave the man alone."
Crestfallen, the doctors and scientists left the cabin and the door silently closed behind them.
"Your in Imperial hands now son, Your safe" the Senator said with a grim smile.
"I can go... Home?" I asked, my synthetic voice jarring against the Senator's own hushed tones.
"Not quite. As an intelligence officer you'll be debriefed. There's also a bit of a media circus about securing your release. I'm afraid it's a busy few months of visits between the core systems." He frowned "But that's better then what you've been few this past year, I'm sure. Let me get you some Harma Silver Sea Rum, the rare stuff. This is a celebration!" He wondered off to fetch glasses.
I looked out the stern side window of the luxury passenger cabin. The huge capital ship slowly got smaller and smaller, before we jumped. I was finally free.